"This World of Tomorrow" and "Oedipus" Dramatize the Power of the Past

"To write "Tomorrow," Hanks and Glossman adapted several of Hanks's own short stories, primarily "The Past Is Important to Us," which he had long hoped might become a movie. Much of the trouble stems from confusion about how a stage text needs to differ from a screenplay-in the number of locations, the allocation of secondary characters, and so on. And, frankly, Bert just isn't a good enough part for Hanks. Ever since my afternoon at the Shed, I've been mentally casting him elsewhere."

"I do recommend that short story, though, which provides some insight into the odd disjunctions of "Tomorrow." It makes clear that billionaire Bert is a billionaire cad and that he's concealing the reason for his trips from Cyndee-in the story, she's his wife, the "fourth and youngest." Bert's sudden interest in Carmen seems like an intoxication with a shiny new thing, mirrored by the way the World's Fair actually operates as a pageant of commodities."

"There's something almost Oedipal about the devotion that certain men have to women from the past. Is it notable that Bert is falling in love with a woman of a previous generation? What an undemanding fantasy Carmen is: an old-fashioned Greatest Generation stoic who's also young and has never heard of women's lib. What would Freud say about such a relationship? It's a puzzle."

Hanks and Glossman adapted several of Hanks's short stories, primarily "The Past Is Important to Us," into Tomorrow. Confusion arose from transforming a screenplay-like text into a stage play, especially in the number of locations and the allocation of secondary characters. The role of Bert proved ill-suited to Hanks, prompting alternate casting imaginings. The original short story depicts Bert as a billionaire cad who conceals trips from Cyndee, his wife. Bert's attraction to Carmen reads as an intoxication with a new object and parallels the World's Fair as a pageant of commodities. Casting Hanks produced a more lovable Bert, yet traces of the selfish original remain and the romance invokes Oedipal and May–December fantasies.

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